Beginning in 1933, when the Nazis took power, tens of thousands of German Christians — baptized, confirmed, and church-going — received official letters informing them that they were now classified as Jews. For the Nazis, “Jew” was a race, not a faith. Nazi functionaries digging in church baptismal records had turned up a parent or …

They say it takes a village to raise a child. Well, it took several villages and more to create this park — the Eastshore State Park. Now the park stretches along the east side of San Francisco Bay from Richmond to Emeryville. Thirty years ago it was only an idea. The land was part garbage …

From Trash to Treasure, my photo book celebrating the beauties of Cesar Chavez Park, is now available as an e-book for Kindle. Hats off to amazon.com customer support, who walked me through the process of getting this photo book into the proper format. You can feed Kindle a PDF file for a book that consists …

Coming in October ’15: Creating the Eastshore State Park, an Activist History by Norman La Force. The Eastshore State Park was the result of the work of many people over the course of close to 40 years. As a citizen effort it demonstrated what individual citizens could accomplish with perseverance and by organizing and …

Suddenly Jews is the story of baptized, church-going Christians who one day in early 1933 found themselves classified as Jews by the Nazi authorities, because their ancestors had belonged to a synagogue. The sudden Jews were between a rock and a hard place. The synagogues did not know them, and the official church did not …

The growing demand for an abstinent recovery pathway free of the twelve-step model drives the growth of LifeRing support groups. How Was Your Week is a comprehensive handbook for people who are considering starting LifeRing in their community. It’s also a useful reference for people already leading LifeRing meetings. How Was Your Week is based …

My new book, From Trash to Treasure: The Splendors of Berkeley’s Cesar Chavez Park, is now off the press and available for sale on amazon.com. I really owe this book to a dog named Mosey. Sheila Jordan, my wife, rescued Mosey from the pound about 15 years ago. He lived for the chase of tennis balls. Our relationship …

Back in ’99 a couple of us early LifeRing convenors gave a talk about our 12-step alternative to a group of clients at MPI, an addiction rehab in Summit Hospital on Pill Hill in Oakland. “Before you guys came, my alternatives were AA or a bullet to the head,” said one client when we were done. “I like …